


City Bells

by Killedbycroc



Category: We Are the In Crowd
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-18
Updated: 2013-03-18
Packaged: 2017-12-05 17:48:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/726096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Killedbycroc/pseuds/Killedbycroc
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Love you.”<br/>“Love you more.” Once the words were out of my mouth, the call went dead, leaving me to stare vacantly at the empty apartment. Tomorrow night, I told myself, everything will be back to the way it should be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	City Bells

  The multi-coloured lights shone brightly throughout the night, twinkling away continuously; that Christmas feeling was definitely in the air tonight. In the distance, there was the faint sound of carols, and for once, hearing them didn’t make me want to massacre everything in sight – instead, a small smile spread across my face, actually looking forward to Christmas.  
  I was walking back to my apartment with a slight spring in my step, glad in the knowledge that Cameron would be back tomorrow, just in time to spend a cosy Christmas together. At the moment, he was touring with the rest of We Are The In Crowd for the final shows of this year, meaning that when he got back, I would have a whole two weeks with him, and completely uninterrupted.  
  Putting away the last of the shopping (which mainly consisted of instant rice), my phone began to vibrate uncontrollably on the counter, causing it to fall from the edge. “Shit,” I murmured to myself, “don’t say that stupid thing’s broke again.” Luckily there was minimal damage to it, just a couple of addition scratches, but I didn’t have time to make a complete survey as my fingers rushed over the screen to answer the call. “Hey there.” My voice composed itself, disguising any butterflies that may have been pounding furiously against my stomach.  
  “Hey you,” Cameron’s voice sounded like silk, even with the slight phone crackle (then again, anything would after hearing Christmas songs all day). “How’s today been?”  
  “Not bad, considering that everybody seems to be out shopping for every piece of Christmas crap imaginable,” I sighed lightly whilst remembering it all – I had been elbowed a couple of times by people who couldn’t wait the extra five seconds to get to the shelves in the supermarket. “What about you? How’s everyone doing?”  
  “We’re fine.” There seemed to be a slight pause, but I more-than-likely imagined it. “Everyone’s excited for the show tonight, but I think we all just wanna get home for Christmas as well.”  
  “And I want you to be back too,” I slumped down into the nearest chair. “I’m sorry I couldn’t come along, work needed more people in for the ‘big holiday rush’, which was pointless because we had exactly five people come in during the last week. It’s stupid, they only needed one person to cover all that, two max.”  
  “Sophie, it’s fine.” My stomach finally unknotted. “Plus I could buy your Christmas gift without you trying to steal it every five seconds.”  
  I couldn’t argue with Cameron there – when it was a week away from my birthday, I had practically torn the whole apartment up looking for my present (which he hadn’t actually bought at that point). “Fine – I still think my method was effective though.” A small chuckle escaped through the phone, echoing away into silence. “I miss you Cameron.”  
  “I miss you too,” it was his turn to sigh, “but it’s only one more night before I see you again.”  
  “Yeah, but that’s on top of the past two months you’ve been away.”  
  I realised straight after that I shouldn’t have said that; when we started dating, we were both fully aware of the fact that he was going to be gone for weeks and months at a time, and I’d told myself that I’d be fine with it, that we’d have Skype and texts to keep in contact, but it could never replace the real thing. “I can’t help that, Soph.”  
  “I know, it just sucks.” For a minute, we were both silent. “Just make sure you get back, okay?”  
  “Promise.” In the background, there was some faint shouting. “Hey, they want us for soundcheck now, so I’ll call you later tonight. Love you.”  
  “Love you more.” Once the words were out of my mouth, the call went dead, leaving me to stare vacantly at the empty apartment. Tomorrow night, I told myself, everything will be back to the way it should be. 

  The next thing I realised, the sun was furiously trying to stream through the curtains as pain simultaneously shot up my neck; once again, I had fallen asleep on the sofa. “That’s the third night in a row,” I grumbled unconsciously to myself, sitting up straight as I stretched my arms.  
  As I began to pour some cereal into a bowl, my phone began beeping furiously from the other side of the room. “Yes, alright, I’ll charge you,” I sighed as I slammed the box down and retrieved the phone charger from a pile of cables. “There, better now?” Just as I was about to head back to the cereal, the screen flashed up, showing two voicemails – one from last night, and one from earlier this morning.  
  The message from the night before was exactly what I expected – Cameron calling after the show had finished. “Hey, I guess you fell asleep again. We’re just heading out to an end-of-tour party, so I’m sorry in advance if you get any weird calls from us. Right, I’ll talk to you later, see you tomorrow.”  
  The second message was from Cameron again, but this one sounded different. “Hey, we made it to the airport, but there’s a delay with our flight, something to do with bad weather somewhere. I don’t know how long we’re gonna be, but they said that it should be sometime this afternoon. I’ll call you again when I land. Bye.” It bummed me out a bit to hear that I was going to have to wait even longer to see him again, but I just reminded myself that I _was_ going to see him.  
  I went back to my cereal, chewing it slowly while trying to keep my mind off Cameron’s delay. Chucking my bowl in the sink once I was done, I quickly changed my clothes for work before throwing open the curtains – and suddenly I understood why there was a delay. Snow covered every available surface of the outside world as more fell from the sky. “Oh.”  
  Once my mind comprehended the scene in front of me, I rushed back to the phone, furiously dialling his number, but each time the call went straight to voicemail. Finally accepting that there was nothing more I could do at my end, I got ready for work, topping my outfit off with the biggest coat I could find.  
  When I stepped outside, the first thing that hit me wasn’t the biting wind that was rushing all around me, but just how little people were daring to venture out into the snow – obviously I had seen New York in snow before, but people usually just got on with it, treating it as any other day. Clearly this was worse than it initially appeared.  
  It took me an extra half an hour to get to the studio that morning as I walked slowly to make sure I didn’t slip over (and a fat lot of good that did – I managed to trip over my feet twice), but when I arrived it was clear that I could have taken the whole day if I wanted to. “Hey,” I greeted Aimee, the receptionist and part-time photographer, “where is everyone?”  
  “Well most people cancelled as soon as they saw the snow this morning, so there’s now about two appointments for the whole day, and…” Aimee was interrupted by the phone, so I went and hung my coat up as she answered it. “Flash Photography, this is Aimee speaking. How may I help you today?” Her pleasant demeanour soon took a turn for the worse, meaning that only one person could be on the phone. “Oh come on that’s total bullshit, I know you only live five blocks away from here, you can’t sa… Fine, have a nice day.” Slamming the phone down, I headed back out to the reception area.  
  “Was that Tony?” He was the studio’s owner, though you never would have guessed it by the little time he actually spends here.  
  “Said that he was at a party last night near Time’s Square and that the roads are gridlocked,” she sighed, clearly annoyed – whenever he used this excuse, it meant that he had a hangover. “Look at it this way, at least we’ve got the whole day free.”  
  I turned back to face her. “Why, when are the appointments?”  
  Clicking furiously at the computer, she answered me without looking away from the screen. “The first one should be in about twenty minutes, and the second one’s not until 12 o’ clock.” At least I couldn’t complain about having to wait on one client for seven hours.  
  “Fine, I’ll go and set up now then. Call me when they get here.”  
  “Sure thing.” Just as I set foot into the studio, Aimee called me back. “Oh, I nearly forgot, I got you coffee this morning.” She got up and grabbed a cup from behind her before scurrying over to me. “Here you go.”  
  “…Did I ever tell you how much I love you?”  
  “Every time I buy you coffee,” she laughed before going to sit back down. Maybe today would be bearable after all. 

  The first client arrived ten minutes late, but I wasn’t that bothered because it just meant that I had something to do, plus it took my mind off Cameron – I kept staring at my phone, wondering why he hadn’t called or even sent a text about where he was. When it reached eleven o’ clock, I was going positively stir-crazy in the studio, and things weren’t about to get much better.  
  “Your twelve appointment just called,” Aimee sighed heavily as she walked into the studio.  
  “And?” I don’t know why I bothered asking, I knew what her response was going to be.  
  “They can’t make today, said something about being in hospital with their kid who got their tongue stuck to a frozen pole or something.”  
  “Oh yay,” I muttered sarcastically as I leant back in my chair, keeping my eyes focused on the phone screen at all times.  
  We were silent for a couple of moments. “I guess you could go home now if you want, not like Tony’s gonna check up on us or anything today.”  
  I thought about it for a second, but then I realised that I would be in the apartment on my own. “Nah it’s fine, I’ll stay and sort through this morning’s shoot.”  
  “Are you sure? You keep staring at your phone, if there’s somewhere you need to be…”  
  “I’m just waiting for a call, that’s all. Plus the work will keep my mind off it.”  
  Aimee seemed unsure, but she bought it nonetheless. “Okay then. I’m gonna pop out to get lunch, want me to get you anything?”  
  “Chicken nuggets,” I replied without skipping a beat.  
  “Sure.” I gave her the money for my food, and then she was out of the door.  
  Pulling up the images on the computer screen, my eyes kept drifting towards my phone. “No, gotta stay focused on this.” It was hopeless though, as I found myself staring at the screen for five minutes, only stopping because Aimee came in with the food.  
  “So,” she asked me as she got a chair and sat by me, “what’s with you and the phone?”  
  “I’m just waiting for a call,” I answered as I devoured my first chicken nugget.  
  “Yeah, you already told me that. Who from?”  
  “Cameron,” I managed to say as I swallowed my food. “He said that his flight was delayed and that he’d call me when the flight landed.”  
  Taking a sip of her drink, Aimee tried to reassure me. “Well maybe he lost signal, or his battery died.”  
  “Yeah, that’s what I’m hoping.” We continued to eat, making small talk to keep my mind off Cameron, and just as I finished, my phone rang. Looking at the number, I didn’t recognise it, but I didn’t care at that point. “Hello?”  
  “Sophie?” I swear my brain instantly dissolved into goo.  
  “Oh thank God it’s you, I’ve been going crazy all day. Why did your phone keep going to voicemail?”  
  “The battery died about five hours ago and my charger’s in my luggage.” There was something off about his voice, but I tried to ignore it as best as I could.  
  “Well that doesn’t matter, now that you’re back.”  
  There was a slight pause from him. “That’s the thing.”  
  “What?”  
  “They cancelled the flight because of the snow, apparently it’s all along the east coast so all these flights are getting cancelled, and we tried to get another one but they said there might not be anything definite until the 26th.” In that moment, in that one split second, I could feel every word and every emotion leave me until I was empty inside, because that’s how I felt. “Are you still there?”  
  “But Christmas Eve’s tomorrow,” I managed to regain some words. “What about Christmas?”  
  There was a sigh, and I knew I wasn’t going to like the answer. “I’m sorry, Sophie, but I don’t think I’m going to get back in time. Even if it stops snowing right now, they’ve still got to clear runways and everybody’s going to try and get the same seats…”  
  The tears started rolling down my face at this point. “You have to get back though.”  
  “There’s nothing else I can do, I’m…” And then the phone was cut off, but I hardly noticed as sobs violently shook my whole body. The one thing I was counting on, the one thing that had kept me going through the day was now ripped away from me. 

  I didn’t see the point of staying at work after that – it was clear I couldn’t concentrate at all, so I walked back to the apartment, going even slower than I had this morning. When I opened the door, I was still expecting that some sort of miracle had happened and that Cameron would be stood there, but the apartment was still as empty as it was this morning. I don’t really remember what I did for the rest of the night, though I seemed to spend a lot of time sat on the sofa, staring blankly at the wall.  
  The next time I looked at my phone, it told me the time was 1am, so I begrudgingly climbed into bed, able to do little more than stare at the ceiling for most of the night. As the waves of sleep finally fell over me, I remember checking my phone for messages one last time before throwing it on the floor and giving up for the day. 

  Of course the next morning I didn’t wake up until 11am; I expected to see Cameron next to me, but when I was confronted with an empty space, everything from the day before came flooding back to me. “Might as well get up,” I sighed to myself, “nothing better to do today.”  
  Hauling myself out of bed, I put the kettle on and spooned some coffee into a mug, not particularly looking forward to the next couple of days that were ahead of me. I might have felt better if I could have called him to ask, but I resigned myself to another day of waiting for the phone to ring. However, I’d have to find it first.  
  It took me about five minutes of lying on the floor and sticking my hand under the bed, but I eventually found it – with no battery. “I forgot to fucking turn it off,” I muttered angrily as I grabbed my charger once more. Sadly there weren’t any messages this morning, and right then, the reality finally hit that he wasn’t going to be back for Christmas. I had spent so much time getting excited for it, knowing that I would have at least one good Christmas, and now that was snatched away from me. It sucked, to say the least. 

  I spent most of the day trying to kill time on my laptop, though even that couldn’t entertain me after a while. Staring at the clock on the screen, it was 11pm, and I knew that I might as well go to bed, even if I wouldn’t be able to sleep. Half-heartedly cleaning up, I threw my half-finished rice from lunch into the bin and unplugged the laptop from the socket. “Merry Christmas to me, huh?” The words felt like they echoed around the apartment.  
  As I stared round the living room in silence, a sudden noise brought me back to reality, turning my attention towards the door. The first conclusion that my brain jumped to was that someone was trying to break into my apartment, and the only logical thing I could think of to do was hide in the bedroom. A minute must have passed before I heard the door swing open. As I dared to take a peek at the potential intruder, I realised he was no burglar – and threw the bedroom door open as fast as humanly possible. There, in the doorway, lightly dusted with snow, was Cameron.  
  “Wha… bu… how?” My mind was racing with a million questions, but I settled on one to start with. “What are you doing here?”  
  “And it’s nice to see you too,” he laughed with that gorgeous smile of his.  
  "No, I mean… I thought you said you couldn’t get back until the 26th.”  
  “They stopped cancelling flights, said the weather was clearing up, and then a few seats opened up on a flight and… now I’m here.”  
  Everything was too overwhelming for me, and I reached out to hug Cameron as I began to cry. “I missed you so fucking much, don’t you ever do that to me again.”  
  “I’ll make sure to tell the snow to stay out of my flight path next time,” he joked, but he hugged me back just as tightly. I felt as though I should never let go of him, just so I knew that this wouldn’t happen again.  
  “Sorry,” I pulled away, wiping my eyes, “I’ll let you into the apartment before I attack you again.”  
  “It’s fine,” he said as he pulled his bags in, setting the smaller one down on the couch. “I guess since it’s so near Christmas, I’ll let you have your present now.” Cameron began to search through his bag, and a minute later his head popped up again. “Sophie,” he spoke softly as he gestured for me to sit down. “I love you more than I thought was possible, and I know we’ve only been together for a year and a half now, but it really feels like you’re the person I’ve been waiting for, and I hope that we can spend a lifetime together.” At that moment, Cameron got down on one knee, and produced from behind his back a small black box. As he opened it, a silver ring with a heart-shaped diamond was unveiled. “Sophie, will you marry me?”


End file.
